Black Hat Partners with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to Support Researchers at Black Hat USA 2012

SAN FRANCISCO, July 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Hat, the world's leading family of information security events, today announced that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will provide pro-bono legal consultations to security researchers at its annual Black Hat USA 2012 conference, happening July 21-26 in Las Vegas. For more information and to register for the event, visit www.blackhat.com.

EFF, a non-profit civil liberties organization dedicated to defending free speech and privacy rights online, has been providing legal advice to security researchers at Black Hat since 2008, when it first unveiled its Coders' Rights Project. The Coders' Rights Project provides legal services to help security researchers exercise their First Amendment right to speak on the vulnerabilities they discover and helps facilitate vulnerability disclosure of newly-found security flaws. 

"Black Hat's partnership with EFF is of tremendous importance to the core tenants of Black Hat, helping us fulfill the promise of releasing research in an open community environment," said Trey Ford, General Manager of Black Hat.  "By having EFF on board, Black Hat's speakers can confidently make their presentations, knowing they have full support from a legal perspective. We're extremely grateful to EFF for this invaluable service they are providing to the Black Hat community."

The Coders' Rights Project protects programmers and developers engaged in cutting-edge exploration of technology. EFF regularly counsels security researchers to help them navigate the legal issues that might impact their work, and in some cases, will contact a software vendor on the researcher's behalf, to allow for anonymity and ensure vulnerabilities are reported quickly and safely.  

"The Black Hat Las Vegas event has always been known as a place where security researchers can come together to share their knowledge and break their findings on the critical security vulnerabilities they have discovered," said Marcia Hofmann, Senior Staff Attorney at EFF. "Our team at EFF is pleased to provide pro-bono legal consultations to help this community.  Our goal is to facilitate the expedient disclosure of cutting-edge, boundary-pushing research while protecting the rights of those who do it."

EFF will have a private room available for speaking with security researchers at Black Hat.  Their attorneys will be onsite to provide legal information on reverse engineering, vulnerability reporting, copyright law and free speech. For more information or if you would like to get in contact with an attorney at EFF, please contact: info@eff.org

Black Hat USA 2012 will feature nine concurrent tracks every day -- including many talks that reveal previously undiscovered security threats and vulnerabilities – as well as workshops, roundtables and cutting edge presentations by top security experts. Deep technical training will take place July 21-24, while the open briefings will run from July 25-26. Registration for the event is still open. Online registration closes July 20. To request media credentials to the event, please visit: http://bit.ly/BHUSAmedia.

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